Bill Whittle has an Afterburner video up over at PJTV:
Bill Whittle worries that President Obama and Senate Democrats like Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are simply not serious about remedying the national balance sheet. Even worse, academics and the liberal news media are providing cover for their malfeasance. Is the nation destined to head into a monumental economic collapse that will imperil basic government services? Find out on this Afterburner.
Whittle didn’t even include this:
If President Obama wants to avoid an economic calamity next year, he could always show up at a press conference bearing two shiny platinum coins, worth… $1 trillion apiece.
Okay, that sounds utterly insane. But ever since last year, some economists and legal scholars have suggested that the “platinum coin option” is one way to defuse a crisis if Congress can’t or won’t lift the debt ceiling soon. At least in theory.
The U.S. government is, after all, facing a real problem. The Treasury Department will hit its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit by next February at the latest. Unless Congress reaches an agreement to raise that borrowing limit, the government will no longer be able to borrow enough money to pay all its bills.
Last year, Republicans in Congress resisted lifting the debt ceiling until the last minute — and then only in exchange for spending cuts. Panic ensued. So what happens if there’s another showdown this year?
Enter the platinum coins. Thanks to an odd loophole in current law, the U.S. Treasury is technically allowed to mint as many coins made of platinum as it wants and can assign them whatever value it pleases.
Under this scenario, the U.S. Mint would produce (say) a pair of trillion-dollar platinum coins. The president orders the coins to be deposited at the Federal Reserve. The Fed then moves this money into Treasury’s accounts. And just like that, Treasury suddenly has an extra $2 trillion to pay off its obligations for the next two years — without needing to issue new debt. The ceiling is no longer an issue.
Unserious doesn’t even come close.
I don’t know the going rate for platinum these days, but I’m thinking those would have to be seriously big coins…….seriously.
Its a fiat coin. The denomination is whatever the Secretary of the Treasury decides; $100 or $100 billion, the minting cost is the same.
That’s not fair.
Howard Dean: “The Truth Is Everybody Needs To Pay More Taxes, Not Just The Rich”
Well duh… particularly if we’re not cutting spending (which WOULD fix the problem, but nooooooo…)
Howard must have actually passed basic math class in school… unlike many of his Democratic brethren, who seem to think “the rich” can shoulder all of this.
Wouldn’t the net worth of all that currency still be the same, e.g., inflation? Wouldn’t existing creditors and government contractors adjust for the inflation, sending spending up even higher, or bringing government service value down? (Heaven forbid government shuts down!)
Normally, I would say this idea is so infeasible that it would not even be attempted, but in light of the QE extremes, I wouldn’t put it past this administration. I almost have to wonder why it is necessary to tax at all anymore.
But, I have to assume this won’t be necessary, because I doubt that Republicans will be putting up much of a fight on the debt ceiling.
Weren’t we just talking about Zimbabwe Ben and nominating Obama for the trillion dollar bill?
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